Tomi Lahren sues Glenn Beck, claims she was fired for pro-choice views.

Tomi Lahren Sues Glenn Beck, Claims She Was Fired for Pro-Choice Views

Tomi Lahren Sues Glenn Beck, Claims She Was Fired for Pro-Choice Views

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April 8 2017 9:22 AM

Tomi Lahren Sues Glenn Beck, Claims She Was Fired for Pro-Choice Views

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Tomi Lahren speaks at the 2016 Politicon at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, on June 26.

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren is hoping for a little help from the judicial system and has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Glenn Beck and his website the Blaze, claiming she was fired for expressing pro-choice views. According to the lawsuit, the commentator who rose to stardom during the presidential campaign with her incendiary videos mocking liberals, the Blaze canceled her show after she expressed her views on abortion on The View.

The suit notes that Lahren was “understandably disappointed, saddened and in shock for being suspended for freely expressing her opinions, which certainly reconcile with what is the law of the land in the United States i.e., a woman's constitutional right to choose and in no way inconsistent with any of [Lahren's] obligations under the Employment Contract.”

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What was it that supposedly angered the Blaze bosses? In mid-March, Lahren went on The View and said that she didn’t think it made sense to be in favor of limited government except when it came to women’s health. "I am someone that loves the Constitution. I am someone that is for limited government. So I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies," Lahren said.

The lawsuit alleges Lahren was suspended for a week after the comments and then was told she was fired and wouldn’t get her show back. The Blaze released a statement noting that Lahren wasn’t fired, explaining how it was “puzzling that an employee who remains under contract (and is still being paid) has sued us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the terms of our agreement with her.” Lahren’s lawsuit acknowledges that she is still being paid but says it was a way for the conservative website to “find an exit strategy to sanitize their unlawful conduct under the Employment Contract."

Lahren, who is fond of calling anybody who disagrees with her a “snowflake,” appeared to reference the lawsuit in a tweet on Friday.

In an interview, Beck defended Lahren’s ouster, making clear he was well aware of her pro-choice views and that was never actually the problem. “We stand for freedom of speech, especially the speech that we don’t like,” he said. “It’s when you call an audience hypocritical and you seem to be flip-flopping that can hurt the audience, and it’s just not a smart move.”

Daniel Politi has been contributing to Slate since 2004 and wrote the Today’s Papers column from 2006 to 2009. Follow him on Twitter.